Starting in June 1995, I have examined fragmentary scriptures
from the traditional shogi player family Ôhashi
and was able to discover some twenty five hitherto unknown texts
that deal in official manner with the annual tournaments of go
and shogi at Edo Castle. The author of all these fragmentary
records is the fifth head of the house of Ôhashi,
called Ôhashi Sôkei the third. The
records cover the thirty four years from 1674 to 1708. Here I
would like to present the first record.

As an official report about the attendance of the players at
the Castle of the Shogun, the record does not deal with the
ordinary life of the players. Even so the author accounts what
he actually heard and saw. Therefore we are able to learn many
facts and details hitherto unknown to the history of go and
shogi. The aim of the records was not merely to inform the
posterity. They also served as documents when a new superior
(the Commissioner of Temples and Shrines) requested information
about precedents.

The tournaments at the Castle were held regularly since 1667,
seven years before this record was written. At that time the
officially sponsored houses of go and shogi were obliged to
move from Kyoto to Edo. This was the time when many medieval
leftovers in the administration were removed by new provisions.
Correspondingly, the roles of the players too seem to have taken
a definite shape then.

Before reporting the actual events of the Castle Games of 1674
let us refer to the players involved.
Honinbô Dôetsu,
was the third head of the house and
was at that time 39 years of age. Also involved was the
famous
Dôsaku
who later became the fourth
Honinbô. He was 30 that year. The head of
the Yasui House, Sanchi, being 57 was the senior among the
go-players and thus held the title of go-dokoro. This was the
highest title among players often endowed in connection with
the rank of meijin (lit. `man of [highest] fame'). However,
in contrast to the traditional opinion, Ôhashi
sources testify that it cannot be regarded as an official
title endowed by the government. A junior Yasui,
Santetsu,
later became astronomer of the Shogunate and changed his
name into Shibukawa Shunkai. At that time he was 36. His
younger brother
Chitetsu,
33, later became the third Yasui.
Monnyû,
35 and second head of the Hayashi
house, was a pupil of
Yasui Sanchi.
Inseki,
26, took over
the house of Inoue but was actually the younger brother of
Dôsaku.
Shunchi,
by 22 the youngest player,
was from the Yasui house. The difficult interrelations of
master-pupil and blood-lineages certainly urged the utmost
caution regarding the pairings at the Castle Games.

Among the shogi-players Sôkei was the fifth
head of the Ôhashi, the oldest shogi player
house. His original name, however, was Itô
Sôgin. He thus may have been adopted from
the shogi house of Itô. He was 39 then. His
opponent was Sôsha, the third head of the
Ôhashi branch-family. Aged 27 he had not
yet reached the peak of his art and received handicap by
Sôkei. The head of the third house, the
Itô, was Sôkan. Aged 56 he was the
senior among the shogi-players and thus became shogi-dokoro.
Perhaps due to the rank of his family he never played at the
Castle Games, but participated as an `observer' (hikae).

The document starts with an account of the pairings for the
annual tournament in front of the Shogun, which was planned
by the go and shogi houses themselves. Two propositions
were put forward. One was identical with the pairing of
the previous year: Yasui Sanchi vs. Honinbô
Dôetsu. In that year, however, the game could
not be decided within the scheduled time. To avoid such an
`unpleasantry' another pairing was put forward either. In fact,
up to 1691 it was very rare that all Castle Games were finished
at the Castle. In most cases some games were continued at a
different place, for instance in 1672 at the residence of the
Commissioner Toda Tajima-no-kami. In 1674 it was finally decided
that the Castle Games should be held on the 20th day of the 11th
Month and that Honinbô Dôetsu should
play Yasui Santetsu.

Three days before the scheduled game, however, Yasui Santetsu
informed Ôhashi Sôkei in a letter
that his condition had turned extremely bad, so he would not
be able to attend the tournament in the Castle at the 20th
day. Since he was expected to play Honinbô, he
questioned Sôkei informally, whether he could not
have Hayashi Monnyû play Honinbô
instead. Honinbô, however, stated, that he could
not accept anyone else than Yasui Sanchi, his opponent in recent
years, instead. If he could not play Sanchi, he would neither
play nor attend the Castle Games. (Monnyû was
Sanchi's disciple and Honinbô obviously objected
to playing the pupil instead of the master.)

In due course, the day before the Castle Games, a letter
from Honinbô reached Sôkei.
Honinbô maintained that due to a terrible food
poisoning he would not be able to appear at the Castle.
Thereupon, a letter by the Commissioner informed the players
that the games would be postponed until the 24th, since both,
Santetsu and Honinbô, had fallen ill. The final
pairing would be decided on the 23rd according to the state of
affairs.

On the 21st, Honinbô wrote Sôkei
that the poisoning disease had gone, but that he were now
suffering from spasms in his breast. Sôkei paid
him a visit and was subsequently visited by the senior Yasui,
Sanchi. They had a `frank talk' reaffirming each other how
fortunate they were to play games in front of the Shogun. We
may infer that they felt some danger that due to the sudden
illnesses the tournament could be canceled altogether. No
complaints about Honinbô are reported, yet,
we feel an atmosphere of constraint to lead the players to
concerted action.

The tournament was finally held on the 24th in the Kuro-shoin
Hall of Edo Castle. In spite of the detailed accounts of the
preliminaries, the games themselves are described very scantly.
Just names and results are mentioned, particular developments
on the boards are kept in silence. The recovered Yasui Santetsu
played Dôsaku
(Yasui Santetsu vs Dôsaku,
Dôsaku wins by 6 points), whereas Honinbô did
not appear at all, not even as an `observer'.

Like in all the other records, rather than commenting the
games, the author is mainly concerned with the audience,
in particular the ranks of the individual members of the
government watching. In 1674, he could proudly report that
the fourth Shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna deigned to visit the
games personally. This was in fact highly unusual. In spite
of the pretext that the tournaments were held in front of
the Shogun, in all other records by Ôhashi
Sôkei we do not find his presence mentioned. The
same was true for the Chancellor (tairô) who was
also among the audience that year. Further, the Senior Advisors
(rôjû), the Commissioner of Temples
and Shrines (jisha bugyô), and the Master of
Ceremonies (sôshaban) belonged to the Shogunal
entourage.

The traditional sources of go and shogi history have never
informed us of the treatment the players received when playing
the Castle Games. Sôkei's reports, however,
mention luxurious meals in the morning and in the evening,
served on precious table-wear. These meals were called
`two soups, seven vegetables' which may sound a little bit
misleading. In fact they consisted of two courses both composed
of seven vegetables plus three kinds of grilled food differing
according to season. Formalism in those days was not so strict
to forbid any changes, so from 1682 on only `two soups, five
vegetables' were served. This down-ranking notwithstanding,
we may call the treatment of the players out of proportion
compared to their modest income. Judging from the amount of
their stipends the players held only a very subordinate rank
in the Shogunal administration. However, when they entered the
Castle to show their art to the Shogun himself, they received
a treatment suiting the most exalted artists. They were even
served green tea and the proper sweets by the tea-masters of
the Shogun. Accordingly, in all records without fail we learn
about the food the players were treated with. This was therefore
another point of special importance in the eyes of the author.

When the games finished, the players first had to offer their
gratitude to the inspectors (metsuke) who were responsible for
safety and control inside the Castle. After leaving the Castle,
they had to pay another visit of courtesy to the Senior and
Minor Advisors and to the Commissioner of Temples and Shrines.

Short time after the tournaments, the players began to engage in
negotiations about their time off duty. Every year in the 12th
Month, they had to apply for holidays and their application had
to be acknowledged by the Shogun's senior advisors. Holidays
would last until the end of the Third Month the following year.
During this period players received only half of their usual
salary, but obviously they could leave Edo under the pretext of
`going to a spa'. Being allowed to travel was quite an uncommon
privilege that time.

Thus, on the first day of the 12th Month the players showed up
in the Castle again to get permission to take their holidays
from the senior advisor and to receive rewards. Who received
what amount is minutely recorded every year. That time too, they
had to pay visits to the Senior Advisors, the Junior Advisors,
and the Commissioner. This may be called an indispensable part
of institutional red-tapism in the yearly routine of an official
master of go or shogi in the Edo Period.

Concerning the formalism of the tournament I would like
to add some remarks based on further reports of the
Ôhashi House and additional sources. As already
mentioned, in most cases games were not finished within
scheduled time and were to be continued at the residence of
one of the senior advisors. As a rule, the treatment of the
players would not change then. They were served the same food
and sometimes (e.g. in 1684) even the tea-masters Fukuami
and Chinami had to attend them in the residence of a Senior
Advisor. As this became quite a burden for the Senior Advisors,
eventually a reform of this practice was urged. In 1692, four
days before the tournament, the players all of a sudden received
an order from the Commissioner of Temples and Shrines to have
their games finished inside the Castle. They discussed the
matter and finally agreed to assemble at Honinbô's
house one day before the tournament in order to play a so-called
uchishirabe (also called shitauchi), a game in advance. They
would replay this game the next day in the Castle only saving
the last decisive moves to play out during the scheduled time at
the Castle.

In 1697, however, in spite of the uchishirabe, one of the Castle
Games could not be finished in due time. It was continued in
the residence of the Senior Advisor Toda Sagami-no-kami. In the
following year, just before the tournament players were again
strictly ordered to finish games in time. It was probably from
this time on that the uchishirabe, the games in advance, were
played out until the final decision. Thus, the games of go and
shogi in the Castle were mere demonstration games. Yet, even
if the results were clear since the day before, they would be
reported as of the very day of the Castle Games.

The alienation of the games, however, went even further.
Since the games (or rather game demonstrations) were finished
rather soon, in the remaining time players were asked to show
additional model games or play teaching games with enthusiastic
amateurs among the Daimyô and lesser officials.
Also players who participated only as `observers' joined these
events which came to be known as okonomi games (games to [the
Shogun's] liking). Among the Ôhashi sources, there
is also a handwritten collection of games which contains okonomi
games of shogi up to the 1780ies. In side notes the names of the
participants (go and shogi) of the tournaments are mentioned.
Judging from these records we can observe that year after year
the strength of the players engaged in the official games
decreased from high dan to lower dan. On the other hand players
from the higher ranks became increasingly engaged in okonomi
games. We almost get the impression that the official games were
nothing but a side effect of okonomi games which turned the
Kuro-shoin Hall of Edo Castle once a year into a salon of go and
shogi. Probably, the reason why the Castle Games were continued
over such a long time was due to the enthusiasm of connoisseurs
of go and shogi among the ranks of the highest officials who
regularly participated at okonomi games.